Stoner Sets Blistering Pace On Day Three In Malaysia

Casey Stoner sent out an ominous message to the MotoGP field with a stunning lap time on the final day of the Malaysia test. The world champion was the only man to go under the two minute barrier after easing the chatter issues on his RC213V.

Kuala Lumpur's famously torrential rain returned in the afternoon, preventing anyone from bettering Stoner's time and Jorge Lorenzo was forced to make do with second, half a second adrift. The Spaniard was nevertheless happy with the session overall and is already looking forward to the next test in three and a half weeks' time.

The top two were followed by their respective teammates with Dani Pedrosa and Ben Spies third and fourth while Valentino Rossi was fifth to bring an encouraging debut run for the GP12 to an end. The Ducati star was optimistic at the end of the day that the front end problems with the bike may finally be a thing of the past.

Hector Barbera confirmed the GP12's improved pace with sixth while the Tech 3 Yamahas of Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso were seventh and eighth. Alvaro Bautista was ninth for San Carlo Gresini while Nicky Hayden battled through shoulder pain to take tenth.

Stefan Bradl's solid start to his MotoGP career continued with 11th while Karel Abraham completed the regular 1000cc riders. Test riders Katsuyuki Nakasuga and Franco Battaini were next up while Colin Edwards got a 2:04.722 out of his Forward Racing Suter-BMW, comfortably outpacing fellow CRT runners Avintia Racing who were a full eight seconds off the pace.

Testing resumes at the Sepang circuit for three more days of running, starting on February 28th.